OCZ Reaper HPC Edition PC2-9200 2GB DDR2-1150 Review

Introduction:

Everybody enjoys having products that perfectly suit their computing style and needs. As an overclocker and enthusiast, it’s hard to find many products that are designed specifically for us. High quality, unmatched performance, and the ability to push it to the limit is what I look for in almost all of my hardware components. Memory is one upgrade that will undoubtedly make your computer faster and allow you to multi-task more efficiently. Exactly what would a set of the OCZ Reaper HPC Edition PC2-9200 2GB DDR2-1150 memory do, performance-wise, to my computer? The stock speed of DDR2-1150 is much higher than the most common DDR2-800, so this memory is clearly for enthusiasts. With the unique heat-spreaders on this memory, the temperatures should be fairly lower; leaving room for overclocking. Let’s see just how far we can push this set of OCZ Reaper HPC Edition PC2-9200 2GB DDR2-1150 memory and how it affects the overall performance of my system.

Closer Look:

The OCZ Reaper HPC Edition PC2-9200 2GB DDR2-1150 memory is securely packaged in easy-to-open plastic. The first thing I noticed was the heat pipe over top of the sticks. They almost look like handles for the memory. The back of the package has a little diagram showing you how the heat-spreaders work.

Once you get the OCZ Reaper HPC Edition PC2-9200 2GB DDR2-1150 out of the package, you’ll notice they have the OCZ Technology logo on one side and a sticker displaying the stock settings on the other side. Take a closer look at how the heat pipe connects to the RAM and aids in heat dissipation.

Now that we’ve examined this unique heat-spreader, let’s install this set of high performance memory.

Installation:

To install the OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2-1150 RAM, turn off you machine, take off the side panel of your case, take out your currently installed RAM, and securely fasten the OCZ Reaper RAM into the 240-pin DDR2 memory slots. Here is where some people will have issues. Since the unique heatsink design makes the RAM so large, it could touch your CPU heatsink if you have a large aftermarket model. Take a look at how close one stick gets to my Thermaltake V1 CPU cooler.

Specifications:

1150MHz

DDR2 available in 2GB (2x1024) Dual Channel Kits

Unbuffered

OCZ Lifetime Warranty

2.3 Volts

240-pin DIMM

Features:

Patent-pending Reaper HPC Heatsink

2.35V EVP (Extended Volt Protection)

EPP-Ready

Testing:

In order to test this set of RAM, I’m going to be running a gauntlet of memory-intensive benchmarks to gauge the set’s performance. I’ll be running the stock timings of 5-5-5-18 at 400MHz (DDR2-800) and the stock speed DDR2-1150 at 571MHz (it isn’t actually quite 575MHz as advertised), for now. This RAM is going to be compared against some other high performance sets made by Mushkin and Crucial. I’m down-clocking the sets because I want to see how tight the timings will get at DDR2-800. The OCZ Reapers were set to 3-3-3-8 (for the DDR2-800 tests) with stock volts. Let’s get this set of RAM tested!

CPU-Z: This program gives very accurate readings for memory so we'll take a look at the stock frequency of the RAM. It clocks in at 571MHz, not quite the advertised 575MHz like I mentioned before.

Windows Task Manager: Here is where you can see how much RAM is being recognized by Windows and how much of the RAM is being used.

Testing:

PCMark05: In PCMark05, we ran the memory suite, as well as the system suite, so that we could see not only the overall system score, but also the memory score. I will be comparing the RAM at DDR2-800 and DDR2-1150. Higher is better in all of the following scores.

SiSoftware Sandra XI: In Sandra, I'll be administering the following benchmarks: Memory Bandwidth, Cache and Memory, and Memory Latency. Higher is better in all tests except for Memory Latency, where lower is better.

The OCZ Reaper set surprisingly scored much lower than the competition in the PCMark05 Memory suite. With the tight timings for the DDR2-800 tests, the OCZ Reaper does very well.

Testing:

CacheMem: In these particular tests, higher is better. We'll be comparing the read and write speeds of the different sets.

Far Cry: In this older first person shooter, I'll be using the Hardware OC 1.8 benchmarking program. The scoring is in FPS (frames per second) and higher is better.

Maximum quality option, Direct3D renderer

Level: Volcano, demo: Volcano.tmd

Pixel shader: model 2.0b

Anti-alising: 4×

Anisotropic filtering: 8×

HDR: disabled

Geometry Instancing: disabled

Normal-maps compression: disabled

It is clear that the Mushkin has a slight upperhand over the OCZ RAM, in these tests.

Overclocking:

To overclock the OCZ Reaper DDR2-1150 2GB RAM set, I’m going to use the stock timings of 5-5-5-18 and the stock volts of 2.3 and see how far I can go with the set. After many attempts, the highest I could get the RAM, in order to be stable under the given conditions, was 600MHz (DDR2-1200). The Mushkin’s highest overclock was at 600MHz as well. The 533MHz Crucial Ballistix Tracer also made it to 600MHz.

CPU-Z: Below is a screenshot of the OCZ Reaper overclocked to 600MHz.

PCMark05: Like the other PCMark05 tests, higher is better.

SiSoftware Sandra XI: The same tests will be ran in Sandra. Higher is better in all tests except Memory Latency, where lower is better.

I'm not surprised to see all of these sets perform about the same since they are all clocked to 600MHz (DDR2-1200).

Overclocking:

CacheMem:

Far Cry: I'll be recording the FPS in this test so higher is better.

Maximum quality option, Direct3D renderer

Level: Volcano, demo: Volcano.tmd

Pixel shader: model 2.0b

Anti-alising: 4×

Anisotropic filtering: 8×

HDR: disabled

Geometry Instancing: disabled

Normal-maps compression: disabled

Conclusion:

OCZ Reaper HPC Edition PC2-9200 2GB DDR2-1150 set of memory was around the middle of the pack in the enthusiast memory market. I say this because the Mushkin XP2-9200 set performed slightly better overall. The OCZ Reaper set performed better than the Crucial Ballistix Tracer in almost every benchmark and the Crucial was stock at DDR2-1066 so that set is clearly at the bottom of the pack. I didn’t have any issues with the OCZ Reaper memory except that the unique heat pipe that is on top of the stick almost makes contact with my CPU cooler. If you have a wide CPU cooler, you might want to check measurements to make sure this set of memory won’t touch your cooler. I was glad that I could down clock the memory to 400MHz (DDR2-800) and have it run at 3-3-3-8, which are great timings for DDR2-800. Overclocking to 600MHz from 571MHz without changing the volts or timings was also nice to see. I did hope it would go a little bit higher without having to change the volts though. The performance of this OCZ memory was slightly less than that of the Mushkin memory, but I’d take this set over the Mushkin because it’s almost $100 cheaper. If you’re looking for quality, high performance memory, but don’t want to break the bank, check out the OCZ Reaper HPC Edition PC2-9200 2GB DDR2-1150 set.